


Foil

by greenapricot



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-06-19
Updated: 2004-06-19
Packaged: 2018-05-01 08:19:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5198819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenapricot/pseuds/greenapricot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is amazing how little it takes to set these Muggles off.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Foil

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted in 2004.

It is amazing how little it takes to set these Muggles off. How quickly he can manipulate the situation from calmly sitting in the dorm to a blind chase through corridors, the sticky metallic taste of exhilaration in the back of his throat and teasing the edges of his tongue. The sound of foot falls and huffing breaths of the three boys behind him magnified and coming at him from all directions, bouncing off institutional tiled walls, floor, ceiling.

The corridor ends up ahead, in the main lobby and viewing room, where hopeful couples come to audition potential sons and daughters. The only room with wood floors and wood paneling. The only room in the entire place that has any sense of warmth or comfort, the only room in which they are not meant to play.

But with the three boys closing quickly, it’s not so much play as a test of survival skills. If they catch him they will beat him. But they won’t catch him. They never catch him. The other boys will slow to a respectable trot at the lobby entrance and Tom will sail on through, slight and quick and weaving between plush couches and wooden end tables. This is the home stretch, this is his favourite part.

But he rounds the first corner too quickly, hand grasping for balance, ankle brushing a table leg, and the vase atop it teeters, slow motion circles, and shatters on the floor with a sound akin to the end of the world. The bouquet spreads in a disquieting arrangement of half dead flowers and glittering shards blinking against the quickly darkening wood.

His mind whirls half-panic for a split second before he quashes it back down. Even this he can twist to his advantage.

“Riddle!” the head immerges from his office, all stern looks and superiority.

Tom freezes and puts on his innocent face. He is the victim here, the boys behind him can’t keep the guilty looks from their faces. They are bigger and there are three of them and Tom is but one small sad boy. It is they who will be given the task of gluing the vase back together.

These Muggles, they are so easy to outmaneuver. The serpent always wriggles free.


End file.
